Fret not, I am here to reply to the reviews I didn't miss. Thank you all for participating. I wish I had engaged more at the time but November was a rough month for me.
Ashes and Diamonds
Hum, I never had an issue with the dubbing or acting. Maybe it's something I missed more because it's a foreign film. While I do think the performance carries a lot of the film, I also think the visuals do a great job of setting up the feeling of what it's like to try to live in an occupied country. There are some haunting bits that stick with me in this film that are like few other films I've seen. (The church scene, and some of the conversations at the bar come to mind.)
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
Before shooting, Wenders went on a scouting trip where he photographed Western America from California to Texas, which is the geographic journey the character takes. I certainly think the cinematographer along with Wenders eye for still photography go a long way in creating the vividness and expansive landscape of some of these moments. It's therefore surprising that the most memorable scenes are the ones that are shot closest to the characters.
I had never thought of it as a revisionist Western, but that does make sense in the final act and in the way he begins the film reentering civilization to make amends after wandering the desert.
Days of Heaven
Glad you found so much to enjoy here. I will say I think your right about who this film is really about by the end. I've seen Days of Heaven a lot of times now and it's hard to come to terms with the ending if it isn't about that character. It's funny that you found the addition of the plot frustrating because I always thought it was somewhat incidental in a way. It's there, and it drives character conflicts, but there's a sense in which the film watches the plot flow over it as it moves onto other things. If Malick's later years are any indication, most people actually hate it when he gets away from having a cohesive plot as Knight of Cups and Song to Song tends to be regarded as his two worst films and have the least cohesive plots, if you could even call what happens in those films a plot.
I'll catch up with more later. Thanks again, everyone who participated.